


>:o don't take my wheel away

by yikesola



Series: Bingo2019 [1]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: 2012, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-11-02 15:48:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20787212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yikesola/pseuds/yikesola
Summary: As Phil stands waiting at baggage claim, a television nearby shows aThis Week in Reviewsegment with video of the wheel he knows so well and the headline underneath it reads, “Manchester Big Wheel Turns for the Last Time.”A fic about tweets and loss.





	>:o don't take my wheel away

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [phandomficfests](http://phandomficfests.tumblr.com/) Bingo Fest!  
Bingo Prompt: Twitter Use

Phil loves a Lester family holiday in Florida. Especially as he’s living in Manchester now, with even less frequent visits than he used to make in his university days. It’s nice to spend so much time around his parents. It’s nice to do the tacky touristy things that are part of their routine. It’s nice to see his brother and to eat American pancakes and watch his freckles erupt from so much time spent in the sun. 

But he hates spending so much time away from Dan. So much time, so many thousands of miles. And he feels guilty for leaving Dan with the editing on the latest episode of _The Super Amazing Project_, even if it was mad of them to begin filming it six hours before his flight. 

The guilt has washed away as the days tick by and the end of his holiday approaches. And the loneliness is curbed— slightly— with Skype calls that remind them both of their routine back in the beginning. Before they lived together. Before they meant everything to each other. When they were shiny and new and working with only the vaguest hints of what they could become. 

He spends the flight back to England trying and failing to sleep. He spends it thinking about how Dan and he will spend the next few jetlagged hours, reuniting despite Phil’s sluggishness, making up for lost time with kisses (and more) and pizza (and more) and as much sleep as Phil’s body clock will allow. He spends it thinking about how all their early days were coated in exhaustion— always travelling, always revelling in their little traditions with what wiry energy they had left. 

He thinks they might indulge in some of those traditions once he lands. Spend some time on their Starbucks sofa. Maybe take a cheeky ride on the big wheel. 

That daydream is shattered hours later as he stands waiting at baggage claim and a television nearby shows a _This Week in Review_ segment with video of the wheel he knows so well and the headline underneath it reading _“Manchester Big Wheel Turns for the Last Time.”_

Phil feels cold; he feels like something has been stolen from him. He tugs on the sleeve of his mum’s jacket and points to the screen saying, “They can’t be serious!” 

His mum takes her eyes off the rotating luggage and looks toward the screen. “Oh yes,” she says, “I remember reading about that. I think they’re taking it to Edinburgh or somewhere. Need the space for the Olympics.” 

“But…” Phil pouts. “But the Olympics are in London!” 

Kath waves her hand like the mysteries of municipal bureaucracy are not to be untangled by her. 

Phil pulls out his phone and texts Dan. “_The wheel is gone! Why is the wheel gone?? D:_” 

Then, because Dan has the audacity to take longer than 0.5 seconds to respond to him, and because that fear of change and overwhelming sense of loss is taking over, Phil shoots out a tweet. “_So I leave the country and they take down the Manchester wheel :o noooo_”

He looks at tweets also referencing the Manchester wheel and sees a hashtag that is well past being useful, but tweets using it anyway. “_#SaveTheManchesterWheel >:o don’t take my wheel away_” 

It won’t do any good. He knows even typing it out that it won’t do any good. They did take his wheel away. It’s been dismantled for an entire week. But still he tweets it. 

There’s even a part of his brain that pings at the risk involved. That remembers the fact that the Manchester wheel is something he should shy away from mentioning, like _Wall-E_ or the abandoned hospital back home. Things it’s better if he doesn’t acknowledge online. Because of where else he’s acknowledged them, in a certain video, and because the less he gives the internet any reason to remember that video then the more likely it is that he and Dan don’t have to worry about what it leaking last September has to mean for them or their careers or anything. That it can just go away. So long as he doesn’t do something like remind people about it, by acknowledging the big wheel or otherwise. But still, he tweets it. 

Dan texts him back. He’s sad about the loss of the wheel too. Sad about the timing. Sad they never did get a last ride, for sappy nostalgia's sake. He hadn’t known or noticed; he’s hardly gone outside since Phil’s been away. 

A fair amount of people respond to his tweets, also using the hashtag. Supportive, but blissfully unaware of how late it is to do any sort of good. They’re still worth thanking. “_Good work everyone :D now I have the proof so I will write an angry letter / chain myself to the remains of the wheel <3_” he tweets. 

Eventually all of their bags are claimed. He hugs his mum who still smells like sunscreen when he gets close. He hugs his dad who tells him to have a safe bus ride to the flat. They go their separate ways, the holiday officially at an end. 

Dan greets him in the doorway. He’s soft and warm and wearing Phil’s old university hoodie, and the red ring around his eyes tells Phil that he’s cried recently. But he’s all smiles when they get their arms around each other. 

“Those tears for me?” Phil teases. 

Dan shakes his head. “For the wheel. It’s stupid, but like…” 

“Yeah,” Phil nods. It was a piece of their story, and now it’s gone. A piece of their early days, of the beginning. When they were shiny and new and working with only the vaguest hints of what they could become— where Dan did what he’s said is the bravest thing he’s ever done and leaned over to kiss Phil for the first time. Where Phil first understood just what a tremendous thing was occurring between them. 

And now it’s gone. 

It’s sad. They’re sad. Phil pulls Dan close even if he smells like plane and only the thinnest remnants of Florida. 

“It’s stupid,” Dan says again into Phil’s chest. Phil hears a little sniffle. 

Maybe it is, Phil thinks. Because the world still goes round even if the wheel doesn’t anymore. And they hadn’t really thought about the wheel for months. And it’s just a place, a place where a wonderful thing happened. But the wonderful thing happens all the time— Phil lifts Dan’s chin to kiss him and prove it. 

They’ll have a cry for the wheel, and they’ll miss it. But then they’ll have kisses (and more) and pizza (and more) and life will keep turning. Phil will shower the last bits of Florida off of him. He’ll work on his next video. Dan will be there beside him.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading— come say hi on [tumblr](http://yikesola.tumblr.com/post/187971656849/o-dont-take-my-wheel-away) !


End file.
